Ignite 2012

Local yoga teacher Annie Stocker is a poetry lover. Often in class she will read a short verse or two. The words stick with me. I’m not sure if her taste in literature just resonates with me or if she is totally in tune with what needs to be said that day. Probably both.

In her recent e-newsletter this Mary Oliver poem was reprinted. It has haunted me for many days. Seems like good advice for the new year as we shake off the sleepy gift-food crazed holidays and peer into the new year. What will it bring? What are my intentions for this new year?

What I Have Learned So Farby Mary Oliver

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of — indolence, or action.